Feminine/Feminist Agency and Subjectivity in the Auto Biographies of Krisdayanti

This article as a whole helps us see how a mother-daughter relationship becomes more apparent with feminist mothering. Through the autobiographies of Krisdayanti, this article highlights how motherhood and mother-daughter relationship plays a vital role in enabling the development of feminist agency and subjectivity in a mother and daughter. The act of “mothering” does not only apply for mothers towards their daughters but vice versa as well. In the biographies, the relationship that Krisdayanti shared with her mother and later on with her children, shows that they viewed the feminine traits of motherhood as empowering, openly accepted and carried out despite the fixed identity roles that have been set by society.

Feminine agency and subjectivity can be briefly described as how women strive to live and rise in a male-dominated society and how these women view their roles as a factor that contributes to their identity. As for autobiographies, especially on Indonesian female celebrities, motherhood is something that is often focused on, as seen in Krisdayanti’s. The importance of motherhood and how it contributes to their daughter’s female empowerment/feminine strength is widely discussed in this article, especially as Krisdayanti’s mother openly embraced the role of providing a livelihood for her family, which is usually seen as a masculine trait. Overall, her mother has portrayed feminine traits that empowered her daughters to be independent and develop their own agency and subjectivity.

According to a report by the World Economic Forum on the global gender gap, it will take approximately 108 years to reach gender parity and gender equality. With this rate, it will be long before the future generation of daughters can experience equal treatment and opportunities that go against society’s stereotypes against women. The message behind this article can be related to “Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls” of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). One of the targets under this goal is to “ensure women have full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making in political, economic and public life.” The example set by Krisdayanti’s mother clearly shows feminine empowerment and leadership. This is important as her daughters were exposed to these traits hence preparing them to take on leadership roles in the future, which can help in the process of closing the gender gap.